In this passage, the Lord Jesus Himself is speaking. Most of the announcements in Revelation are from divinely authorised angels or an unnamed voice from God's throne, but here Jesus speaks directly to John, as He did at the beginning of the book (Revelation 1:17-18). He again identifies Himself as the Alpha and Omega – the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet – the Beginning and the End (Revelation 1:8). He is the Creator who establishes everything (John 1:1-3), and He has the right to wind up the fabric of this corrupted universe (Isaiah 34:4) and replace it with something new and holy (Revelation 21:4-5).

A loud voice from the throne had just announced it: death, mourning, sorrow, pain and tears will go and be replaced by a new order of life; joy and peace which is fit to last for eternity. Now Christ says, "It is done" - He is referring to the completion of all His plans to abolish sin and its consequences. It is the echo of His cry on the cross, "It is finished" (John 19:30). But this is more than the sacrifice for sin because the expression is plural, meaning: 'All that was to be done has been done'. Everything spoiled by sin has gone and everything is made new (Hebrews 8:10-13). Those who are thirsty to be thoroughly righteous will have enduring new life as a gift (Matthew 5:6). All who have held firm in the battle for their hearts and minds (Matthew 24:13), all who have received Jesus, will be His children for ever (John 1:12).

Jesus then debunks the modern myth that everybody will get to heaven in the end. The cowards, who save their skins at the cost of Christ's honour; the unbelieving, who refuse to accept God's Word as being true; the vile, whose mindset and behaviour are the opposite of Christ's character; those who kill, because they hate; the sexually immoral, whose god is their sensuality; the magic practitioners, whose occult powers deceive others; the idolaters, who will worship anything rather than Jesus Christ alone; and liars, who deface truth, deceiving themselves and blinding others … all these will be excluded from Christ's eternity with His children. They will join the Antichrist, the false prophet and the devil for an eternity of torment in the lake of fire (Revelation 19:20, 20:10, 14-15).

One great conclusion to the everything as we know it, the end of evil and the beginning of unadulterated goodness; but two radically different eternal destinations for the human race (Matthew 25:46). Salvation and judgement are the two sides of the same, "It is done". All people are raised to meet the Lord (Daniel 12:2), but only those who have received Him and stayed with Him, will be with Him for eternity. Such a stark contrast is both a comfort to the believers who have suffered for the sake of Christ, and a challenge to those of us who know how easily we wander from doing the truth. The Bible never gives any comfort to people who turn away from following and honouring Jesus. It urges us to repent and stop hardening our hearts to His Word. This contrast of destinations should also challenge us to explain the gospel to as many as we can (Matthew 24:14), so that some might be saved (1 Corinthians 9:22). Cherish the gospel, live the gospel and tell the gospel, for Christ's sake.